He’s just released his second album Electric Light and is ready to play a sell out show in a city he’s rather fond of, given which football team he supports.

Brit Award winner James Bay will take the stage at O2 Academy Newcastle on Tuesday, June 5 but will no doubt be rather gutted that his trip to the Toon comes at the end of the football season, meaning he can’t coincide the gig with a trip to St James’ Park.

It was the fact that Alan Shearer played for the Magpies when James was looking for a team to support that swung him towards NUFC from a young age - who knows maybe Alan will be at the Academy.

Well, whether United’s famous number 9 is there or not, James is guaranteed a warm reception from the Tyneside faithful, having wowed them when he was last here in 2016 to headline the Mouth of the Tyne Festival.

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Since then the 27 year old toured the world and been back in the studio, the results being Electric Light which is currently sitting pretty at number 2 in the UK album chart.

And being refreshingly honest, James admits he was aware of the ‘second album curse’ that a number of acts seems to fall victim too.

“Coming off a big debut album, the pressure is of course on for the follow up to do as well, if not better,” he told Chronicle Live.

James Bay (Image: Getty Images North America)

“And I’d be lying If I said I didn’t feel any of that.

“I took my time with Electric Light and I wanted to draw on some of my musical influences as well as writing songs personal to me.

“It’s a real mix of tracks; Slide is one a few people have picked up on. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a sad song but it’s very honest.”

As much as he’s got well stuck in with the writing and recording process for the follow up to multi-platinum debut Chaos and the Calm, James said the part he’s been looking forward to the most is getting back out on the road.

“Playing live will always be my favourite part of what I do,” he continued.